The Senate Health and Human Services Committee unanimously advanced three acting secretary nominations Monday.

Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Acting Secretary Jennifer Smith, Department of Human Services Acting Secretary Teresa Miller, and Department of Health Acting Secretary and Physician General Rachel Levine all were sent to the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee with the committee’s favorable recommendation.

Republican members in both the House and the Senate recently have taken steps to introduce legislation they say will protect Second Amendment rights when a governor makes a disaster declaration.

A House bill that cleared that chamber in late April cleared the Senate Finance Committee Monday morning along a party-line vote.

The bill, House Bill 1071, has been introduced by Rep. Frank Farry (R-Bucks) and Rep. Mike Hanna (D-Clinton), and is targeted toward municipalities that might be inclined to enact such regulations or fees on recyclable plastic bags typically used at grocery stores and other retail establishments and could potentially hurt the statewide economy.

With the 2015-2016 legislative session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly expected to come to a close Wednesday, lawmakers started separating the wheat from the chaff in terms of what might become law Monday with items like pension reform and a possible fix and/or expansion of gaming in Pennsylvania taking top position of what lawmakers hope to get done before heading home for the election.

The Senate Wednesday afternoon returned to the House the budget that chamber passed less than a day earlier, but increasing higher education funding by 2.5 percent and lowering the overall spend number to $31.53 billion.

Only three Senators—Sen. Scott Wagner (R-York), Sen. John Eichelberger (R-Blair), and Sen. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango)—opposed the spending plan.

The spending plan voted on by the Senate Wednesday found its $40 million increase to be shared by Pennsylvania’s state-related schools and other institutions of higher education by shifting money from lines said not to be priorities to the House or the governor and was able to obtain its bipartisan support by increasing funding in areas like the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.